REL board meet today to discuss resignations

Reliance Energy Ltd's (REL) board of directors will meet tomorrow to discuss the resignations of its six directors.

The company, in a brief one-sentence press statement issued today, said: "A meeting of the board of directors of the company has been convened tomorrow, that is, Tuesday, 30th November 2004, to consider the resignations of the six directors and other related issues."

Six of the 12 board members of REL resigned on November 25. They are executive vice chairman Satish Seth, finance director K H Mankad, director operations SC Gupta, business development director JP Chalasani and two non-executive directors, J Ramachandran and Amitabh Jhunjhunwala.

When contacted, an independent member of the board said: "No agenda has been circulated for the board meeting. But there is the assumption that the board is meeting to understand the reasons for the resignations. We will also gauge the willingness of the directors to continue on the board.''

The member said that it was not unusual that no agenda had been circulated since this was an unscheduled meeting. "We will also consider the various steps which can be taken to restore investor confidence. But before that it is important to understand why the resignations took place,'' the member added.

Another director told Business Standard on the condition of anonymity that he was yet to receive any request from REL chairman and managing director Anil Ambani to reconsider his resignation.

Asked whether he would reconsider his resignation, the director said that he hasn't made up his mind on the matter.

These six directors are nominees of Reliance Industries and Anil Ambani . Their resignations had taken senior Reliance Industries officials by surprise. Reliance Industries owns a 50.2 per cent stake in Reliance Energy; much of the remaining equity is held by the public.

On November 25, Anil Ambani told a large gathering of journalists at the Reliance Centre in Mumbai that he had received the resignations and that the 'board of REL will consider these at an appropriate time and we will keep stock exchanges, our investors and the media informed."